Interview on GigaOm

The tech blog GigaOm came out the conference to grab me for an interview — here are the results!

Gladius

Did anyone else ever play this old game? It was one of my favorites… I was reminded of it by the Colosseum photo today…

Daily Photo – Cafe near the Colosseum

While I was taking a photo of this scene, a fight broke out! I wasn’t in the middle of it… but I was close enough to hear the nature of the argument. It involved a bunch of drunk guys and mentions of futbol players from various countries. There was even a barstool that was brandished! It was very exciting, but I had to wait for everyone to get their grip before I took the photo…

More eBooks?

My latest eBook over at Flatbooks.com is on Composing The Photo, which reminds me of the cinematic crop below. It has been so long since I’ve written one! I’ve got many more in my head… I just haven’t had the time to get them down. I’ll get to it. Really, these eBooks have been much more profitable than the regular books, although that is not really a big motivation for me. If it was, I’d churn out a new eBook every few weeks! Anyway…I know I know many people want more… and I will get to it eventually.

Daily Photo – Exploring Nimes

After sitting down for thirty minutes waiting on the right light (see my previous Nimes photo by clicking the category above the comments), I walked around the left side of the structure. I liked all the cafes and the road and it all seemed balanced… so I set up for a wide-angle shot.

You’ll notice that I cut off the top and bottom… they didn’t add much to the photo, and they gave the whole thing a more cinematic feel.

It does cost 99 cents, but I hope this is not too much to ask to support your local internet artist! It comes with 17 wallpapers, and there are more avail beyond that in case you want more. Enjoy!

Now you can get this wallpaper and many more

Google Talk and PhotoWalk Soon

See this Google+ thread for the latest. It looks to be great. Lisa Bettany, Thomas Hawk, and Robert Scoble will all be there, along with a huge host of others!

Different Perspectives

I was here with my friend Scott Kublin (his HDR blog), and of course we were both drawn to this bullfighter. He got his own shot of it, and I don’t know if he has published it yet. To me, it’s interesting to see what angles people choose and why…

Daily Photo – The Bullfighter

I arrived in Nimes a the day before the Sting concert, and I wanted to get a few shots of the old city right away. The weather and light cooperated!

Maybe this is the best preserved Roman coliseum in the world? I don’t know that for sure, but it’s the best one I have seen. And, even better, it’s still in good enough shape that they use it for concerts, bullfights, and even swimming events!

In front of the coliseum is this grand bullfighter. It’s kind of the main “meeting place” for many people in this area, so I had to be extremely patient waiting for people to clear the area so I could get a shot!

Thanks to Luke!

I wanted to give a HUGE thanks to Luke, who manages our 24-hour customer support (support @ stuckincustoms.com). We get hundreds and hundreds of emails from customers that buy everything from the video photography course to the ebooks, and he is fantastic at helping people out… We just got this nice note from a customer, Patrice Ryan, and I asked if I could publish it as a way to publicly thank Luke!

“First of all, can I give you a gold star for customer service? I’m amazed you are still following up with me and appreciate this so much!”

Thanks again Luke! This operation would fall apart without you!

Meeting with Locals

If you are going to a new location, see if you can do anything to make friends with people that live there before you go. You may get an opportunity to spend time with them, visit their family, and see the sort of local stuff that is normally not seen by tourists. Obviously, because of this blog, I’ve got all sorts of interesting people to meet all over the world. But, if you see someone comment on here from a particular location, feel free to contact them (click on their name) and maybe you’ll find a little photo-friend to have an adventure with!

Daily Photo – Dinner with Friends in Nimes

The designer of the site here, Fabien Barral (see his site), took me to this wonderful little restaurant in Nimes for dinner. It was way off the beaten path, and we never would have found it… Plus, there’s also something very nice about sitting there with local people, talking about local politics, the economy, art, life, and everything.

Fabien is a great guy, and he’s become a great friend over the years. He just got finished redecorating a hotel in Paris, and I’ll try to get shots of that up soon.

Your Most Amazing…

What is the most amazing concert / venue you have ever visited? There are little amazing things that happen all over the world all the time, but I rarely hear about them… so I was wondering what experiences you have had.

Daily Photo – Sting in Concert in Nimes

So I’m going to see Sting in concert this week right here in this old Roman ruin. I’m very excited to see what it will be like to see something like this here… It’s hard to imagine what it will be like, but I’ll try to grab a few photos while I am there… no promises, though, but I’ll see what I can get! I’m not going in any official capacity – just as a fan in the audience.

Japan Charity Week Continues

On Twitter…

I know many of you follow on Twitter (@TreyRatcliff), and I do my best to sprinkle in inspirational or interesting stuff every day. if you sign up for our Newsletter (free), then I usually include the month’s best tweets in a list format… I thought I would put a few of them here for you, including this little thing to the right that I tweeted out yesterday. I decided to make a little square poster out of it!

So, here’s just a little helping of some recent tweets that you would probably like:

Daily Photo – Roman Baths in Nimes

When I arrived in Nimes to visit my friend Fabien, one of the first places we visited were the ancient Roman baths. The ruins here are better preserved than those in Rome!

Actually, I’ve heard that the best Roman ruins are along the northern coast of Libya. It will be a while before I can visit those, I’m afraid. I’ll have to strike Libya off the list for a few years until things cool down. Oh… Egypt too. That’s on the list but it has a little asterisk beside it. When you look at the bottom of the list it reads:“*currently in the midst of a violent revolution – consider other areas for photography, like, perhaps, Holland.”

Interiew with Fabien Barral

You guys know Fabien, yes? He’s the famous French graphic designer that I somehow convinced to help build this website. It went so well, in fact, that we’ve got a few other secret projects going on together! We cooked up some stuff when I went to go visit him in Nimes earlier this year.

Living Design recently interviewed Fabien all about design, his ideas, his thoughts, and this sort of thing. Go check it out if you want to learn more about Fabien!

Happy New Year!

I’m looking forward to spending this year with you! We’ve got all kinds of great stuff in store for you… I hope today’s photo is a good indication of things to come!

Daily Photo – The Gladiator Arena at Sunset

While visiting Fabien in Nimes, there was a bullfight going on inside this ancient Roman gladiator arena. The further south you go in France, the more likely you are to find the old influence of the Spanish bullfights. It’s pretty violent, yes? Yes. In fact, if you zoom in, you can still see blood that has been smeared across the arena by the smearing-truck.

Once the crowd started to clear out, a perfect sunset settled upon us. It was just Fabien, my wife, and I, and it was a very nice night. After the bullfight, we walked around to take a lot of photos of this amazing evening, Fabien took us to his favorite little secret French restaurant down one of the side streets. Perfect!

Join me in the Peachpit Photo Club Tonight!

The event is on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 from 8 to 9 p.m. ET (5 to 6 p.m. PT). See you soon!

A Great Day with Fabien!

Thanks again to the great Fabien Barral for showing us around Nimes for the day! I’ve always been “internet-friends” with Fabien, and he is the designer that does this website as well as my book. You should visit his website above to see some of his other amazing work.

We had a great day and evening together… I always enjoy meeting artists from all around the world and hearing their perspective on things.

Daily Photo – The Roman Gladiators of Gaul

Nimes has some very well preserved Roman ruins. There is a huge park area that has stone walkways over ancient Roman waterways and this colosseum structure in the middle of town.

One of the coolest things about this colosseum is that it is still used on a regular basis! When we were there, they were having a bullfight inside the arena. I have some pictures of the aftermath, including trails of blood in the sand… It’s fairly graphic, but you’ll have something new to see in coming weeks when I get around to processing those!